


The Taste Of The Sun And The Smoke

by ieroangel



Category: Corpse Bride (2005), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Corpse Bride, Frerard, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-19 08:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/881872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ieroangel/pseuds/ieroangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Corpse Bride AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Taste Of The Sun And The Smoke

“I died  
So many years ago  
But you can make me feel  
Like it isn't so  
And why you come to be with me  
I think I finally know  
You're scared  
Ashamed of what you feel  
And you can't tell the ones you love  
You know they couldn't deal  
Whisper in a dead man's ear,  
That doesn't make him real  
That's great -  
But I don't wanna play  
'cause being with you touches me  
More than I can say  
But since I'm only dead to you  
I'm saying stay away  
And let me rest in peace  
Let me rest in peace  
Let me get some sleep  
Let me take my love and bury it  
In a hole six foot deep  
I can lay my body down  
But I can't find my sweet release  
So let me rest in peace  
You know  
You got a willing slave  
And you just love to play the thought  
That you might misbehave  
But 'till you do  
I'm telling you  
Stop visiting my grave  
And let me rest in peace  
I know I should go  
But I follow you like a man possessed  
There's a traitor here beneath my breast  
And it hurts me more than you've ever guessed  
If my heart could beat, it would break my chest  
But I can see you aren't impressed  
So leave me be  
And let me rest in peace  
Let me get some sleep  
Let me take my love and bury it  
In a hole six foot deep  
I can lay my body down  
But I can't find my sweet release  
Let me rest in peace  
Why won't you let me rest in peace?”  
\- Rest In Peace by James Marsters

“With this hand,  
I will lift your sorrows.  
Your cup will never empty,  
For I will be your wine.  
With this candle,  
I will light your way in darkness.  
With this ring,  
I ask you to be mine.”  
Gerard read the words on the slip of paper and folded it over again, placing it in the right pocket of his leather jacket. Those words were the very vows he was to recite on his wedding day, the day on which he was to marry Lindsey Ballato, the girl he was in love with. Yet he had barely met her…  
He had always loved the woods for no apparent reason…perhaps it was the fantasizer in him, perhaps it was the if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest concept. If a drunken Gerard falls in the forest, does it still make a sound?   
Gerard giggled aloud at his own not-exactly-a-joke-but-more-a-tragedy (could have been the name of his autobiography, ha!) and felt his head spin into an ecstatic sickness that could only be blurred by even more booze.  
“With,” he began in a slurred voice, “this fucking hand, I will lift your sorrows!”  
Gerard ran a clumsy hand through his messy hair and swallowed hard.  
“Your cup will never be empty, for I will be your wine.”  
He laughed darkly at this, all he was made of was alcohol anyways…of course, he would be her wine…and cigarettes and shitty music…why were those not in these stupid fucking vows?  
“With this fucking candle,” Gerard screamed at no one in particular, “I will light your way in darkness!”  
He pulled out a battered lighter and lit up a cigarette, taking a deep drag and leaning against a tree, sliding down to the earth, where he belonged. The closer to hell you can get, right?  
“With this ring, I ask you to be mine,” he whispered, shaking his head, and he felt the ring drop out of his pocket with the paper.  
He was not sure if it was the alcohol or some sort of natural phenomenon, but the world began to shake. Seconds later he realised it was not the world, but the ground itself, and at that moment, the ground opened.  
“No,” said Gerard, but he was seeing a corpse.  
Not really a CORPSE corpse, it was not oozing bodily stuff or made up of only bones, but it was definitely dead. It had a pale face and a small, stretched frame, and tousled hair, and a dead look in its eyes. They blinked.  
Gerard took a step back, sloppily falling to his feet.   
“What…are you?” said Gerard, not thinking his words through first.  
“Frank,” said the dead thing, grinning at Gerard’s reaction. “And we’re married.”  
“Gerard,” said Gerard, automatically, then realised what he had said. “Excuse me?”   
“You said the sacred vows; put the ring on my finger, I think that qualifies.”  
He felt like he was going to be sick; his head spinning wildly. He couldn’t be married to some dead vampire or whatever, he was getting married in three days.  
“I wasn’t…I dropped the ring…and SACRED vows?”  
“Those were an adaptation of a spell used to raise the dead back in the 1800’s. In short.”  
“The dead,” said Gerard.  
Frank laughed darkly.  
“Look at me, baby, do I look shiny and new to you?”  
Gerard didn’t respond. It was weird to be attracted to a dead guy, but you know, if he was alive again…damn…  
“I died in 1998,” said Frank, sitting up in the grave and staring up at the sky. “Damn, I forgot, y’know, nature.”  
“We’re…married,” said Gerard.   
“Well, yes, unless you find someone to break the bond, and then, well, I think I go back...”  
“Back?” Gerard said, confused.  
“I should, probably…” Frank said, and suddenly leaned into Gerard, grasping his hand and kissing him gently.  
He could feel the weight of the ring on the finger that would be Lindsey’s….  
They could’ve been spinning through a vortex, or sinking through the ground, or burning through another realm, or god knows what, but Gerard didn’t even notice around Frank Iero’s kiss.  
“Mmmph,” said Gerard, pulling away. “Frank, I’m engaged.”  
“You’re married, Gerard, to me, and that’s a law, written in stone, forever, no way out.”  
He said this in a sort of a matter-of-fact way, with a hint of a sing-song smile in his voice, as if he was in love with Gerard for real.  
Gerard closed his mouth. Hopefully that was the booze talking.  
Frank smiled and leaned against the wall of…whoa! Gerard hadn’t even realised that they had been transported to some other place.  
He looked around, seeing a wasteland, all black and white, shards of lives, shards of people; it was really just a messy city. It gave off a strong reminder of New Jersey and Gerard should not have loved it at all, but somehow, he found it beautiful.  
“Frank,” Gerard said slowly. “Is this…”  
He was afraid to say it.  
“Hell?” said Frank, biting his lip. “Yeah, it is. This is the outskirts, really.”  
“Shouldn’t it be more…burny?”  
Frank giggled.  
“What, you surprised? Thought I’d be all clouds and angels and seraphs? Or are you looking for the man with horns and a forked tail and a pitchfork laughing and setting me on fire?”  
“Nah, it’s just…” He paused, searching for a word. “This is more debris than torture.”  
“Well, hell, Gee, that’s what we are.”  
As he said this, Gerard realised that Frank looked different, happier somehow, with a certain gleam in his eyes that had been entirely missing in the forest. Was it the hell itself that brightened him here or the dimness of everything else? But no matter. He had to get back anyway. He was about to say something about getting back to Earth when Frank pulled a cigarette out of a dusty pocket, brushing off dirt from his jacket.  
“You can smoke here?” Gerard said incredulously.  
Frank burst out laughing at this, a big HA HA HA that was very different from his tiny smirking chuckle.  
“Yes, Gerard, I might as well light it on the hellfire that’s rotting my soul.”  
“Could I have one, then?” said Gerard, and Frank tossed him the pack with ease.   
It was weird with this Frank kid, he guessed it was because technically, they were married, but it felt like he already knew him in a sense. Gerard didn’t like the feeling at all. Trying to get his mind off of Frank and onto Lyn-Z, he pulled his lighter from his own pocket and lit the cigarette. There was a slight moan, and Gerard whirled around, thinking it was Frank being weird as fuck.  
“It bothers them,” Frank said simply, and Gerard turned only to do a double take at the sight.  
There was a slight crowd of cancer patients, looking pale, sickly, and kind of, well, dead.  
“Newbies,” said Frank, and he subtly crushed the cigarette under his foot, walking over to the group.  
They were mostly teenagers and adults in their twenties or so, and they shied away from Frank like he was some kind of a freaky monster. Well, really, he was.  
“Hey, you guys all right?” said Frank, and Gerard could’ve sworn that a teenager rolled his eyes.  
“We’re dead,” said the same kid, and made a disgusted noise at the pack of cigarettes in Gerard’s hand. “Filthy things,” he said. “Right killed my lungs, eh.”  
He let out a hacking cough.  
“What the hell is going on?” demanded a woman in her late twemties, putting her hands on her hips and glancing angrily around at their surroundings,.  
“You...” said Frank, and then seemed to notice something from behind him. “Oh, shit, Gerard, c’mon.”  
Gerard had no choice but to take Frank’s hand. Almost immediately he grabbed it and jerked Gerard through a mound of debris and bones, weaving throught eh barren area, until they saw a city in the distance.  
“That’s where we live,” Frank said, breathing hard.  
We? Oh. Right.  
“Listen, Frank,” Gerard started.   
“You don’t want to be married to me, do you?” Frank said.   
Gerard blinked and shut his mouth awkwardly.  
“It’s all right,” Frank said sadly. “It’s not your responsibility to save me, really.”  
“No, Frank, I like you, I really do, it’s just-“  
“The girl!” said Frank, moaning. “Shit! It’s just, with the vows, and the saving, and all, with me, I figured that you were-“  
“I’m bi,” said Gerard, and he honestly had no idea why he said it, he was straight, right?   
RIGHT? DAMN IT, FRANK!  
“Oh,” said Frank, “but you’re in love, with the girl, huh?”  
Gerard paused. He barely knew Lindsey either, but Frank…he didn’t know about Frank. Gerard didn’t believe in love at first sight but this was marriage and that was a whole other story.  
“I…don’t…” said Gerard, and he ran a hand over his mussed hair. “I’m drunk, Frank, and I need to go somewhere, to Earth, or whatever you call it down here, and it’s fucking cold, and I’m tired as hell.”  
“We can’t go back tonight,” Frank said firmly. “The Parade is out, and they’ll try and take you.”  
“All right,” said Gerard, not sure if he wanted to know what this was.  
“I’ll take you to Battery City,” Frank said, gesturing at the inner area of the “hell?” “It’s pretty safe there, ‘cept in the Desert Beyond, but we’ll stay close.”  
He began walking in a decided manner, beckoning for Gerard to follow.  
“In the Desert you can get ghosted,” he added. “That’s where you stay on Earth as a ghost, and you can’t do anything, and it sucks dick. Where we were before, that’s where you enter when you die, straight away. The Black Parade comes and makes you stay dead and regulations and all the beauty of death and that crap. On the west side, way, way back, you can see where this one city burned down, mostly. These towers crashed or something, and yeah, so-oh! And on the east there’s the lost soul territory, where you can’t get stuck in, cause you’ll hafta pay your way out by giving up souls to the devil through revenge. There is a devil, actually, and he’s in this one dark place that no one knows much about, but it’s a place of temptation, kinda like that Eve’s Apple story. Anyway, yeah, you got your four territories, Desert, Black Parade, Revenge, Towers, and the fifth, which has no name, for some reason. Either way, I’ve been talking too long. How’s the upper life, Gerard? Buffy still good?”  
“It’s a comic, now, actually.”  
“Badass!” said Frank, the corner of his mouth turning up. “We’re almost to the hotel where I crash, oh! I room with this other dead kid, who kinda got the same sitch as me, as in the sense that we knew each other before here. Pain in the ass finding each other, though.”   
“’s cool,” said Gerard, silently glad; he had been worried that Frank might’ve tried to make a move on his new “husband.”  
“His name’s Ray, he was shot a’coupla minutes after I was.”  
With no warning, Frank lifted his shirt to reveal a gaping hole in his chest, right through where his heart was. But Gerard was more interested in the tattoos than the backstory, whatever it was, Frank would’ve told him exactly what happened if he wanted him to know.  
“Right then,” said Frank, tugging his shirt dwon awkwardly. “Here we are, the abandoned Battery C Hotel.”  
Gerard looked up at the building. It was FUCKED UP, in the superbadass kind of way. Most of the windows were bashed out and it looked cold as hell but he walked up to it anyway and stared at the window on the left, which had a figure waving out of it.  
“Hey, Frank, who’s your friend?”  
“This is Gerard!” Frank yelled back. “He lifted my curse, we’re fucking married!”  
“Fucking hell, that’s rich!” said the second man, laughing, and he disappeared into the hotel.  
Gerard didn’t even realise that he had been holding Frank’s hand until Frank twisted out of Gerard’s tight grip to slide a card through a slot, opening the door.  
“What’s th-“  
“It’s just a hotel card,” Frank said, rolling his eyes. “Come on, that up there was Ray. He’s probably getting your ‘rrangements made.”  
“Arrangements?”  
“Oh, yeah, so the demons- yes, this is hell –don’t track you. If they do, they’ll send you to the Parade and make you join us. Oh, but don’t worry, I’ll take you to Brian in the morning and we’ll go upstairs. Promise.”  
“All right,” said Gerard, making his way through the wreckage of the hotel.  
“Hey, Jared?” said the second man.  
“Gerard,” said Gerard, in a slightly exaggerated tone of annoyance.   
“Oh, sorry, dude. I couldn’t really hear Iero up there. I’m Ray Toro, by the way. I was friends with Frank before we, well…so, married?”  
Frank held up his left hand, the ring shimmering on it.  
“It wasn’t supposed to be…” said Frank. “He’s engaged, see.”  
“’t’s a shame,” said Ray. “He’s gonna have to go through his trials again if he ends up all-the-way-dead again.”  
“Trials?” said Gerard.  
Frank was making a shushing motion to Ray.  
“He doesn’t know about the trials?” said Ray, looking confused.  
“What are the trials?”  
“Nothing!” said Frank, who was shaking oddly.   
“Are you okay?” said Gerard, looking at Frank, who was breathing hard and twitching like he was afraid.  
“Don’t,” said Ray. “He’s going to-“  
Frank let out an earsplitting scream and fell to the ground, rocking back and forth.  
“Is he having an anxiety attack?” said Gerard, worried, looking around.  
It WAS his husband, for God’s sake.  
“No, worse, it’s the trials, they trigger this shit-“  
Frank’s scream pierced the solemn air again.  
“The trials are what you gotta go through when you get into hell, depending on how you got there. Torture trials, really, given to you by the Devil himself.”  
Ray laughed dryly.  
“It’s an honor. Luckily I didn’t receive it. But Frank here, he still gets these. It’s the last bit of the trials; your memories come back to haunt you. Mostly his death too.”  
“Weren’t you there?”  
“Yeah,” Ray said, whistling. “It was sick. But you’d better get Frank outta here quick, Gerard, you said? He’s mostly dead right now. Before you married him he was all-the-way-dead and now he’s partially-dead, which means he can live Upstairs, instead of down here. Go ask for Brian in the morning, he lives over in the Revenge realm.”  
Frank was crying on the floor.  
“You’d better take him,” said Ray. “After all, he is your husband.”  
The door of the hotel slammed shut.  
‘He’s your husband,’ thought Gerard.  
He was, really, though they had only met a few short hours ago. Gerard glanced down at Frank with a reverence of not pity but more of love, the kind that you’re forced to have, but you don’t hate the fact that you have to love them. Gerard didn’t even know why he loved Frank so much for no reason, but he did. Frank seemed perfect and cute and funny, and oh, fuck, right now he was shaking on the ground of hell.  
“Frank,” whispered Gerard, kneeling over him. “C’mon.”  
Frank didn’t move.  
“Fraaank,” Gerard said in a sing-song voice.  
Gerard attempted to lift Frank by his arms and get him off the floor, but dropped him in surprise. Frank was bleeding out from the bullet wound on his chest.  
“Frank, God, what’s happening?”  
“It’s you,” said a innocent sounding voice from behind Gerard.  
Gerard turned, a limp Frank in his arms.  
“Who the hell are you?”  
“Bryar, Robert Bryar,” said the man dressed in black. “I run hell.”  
“So…you’re Satan.”  
The man cracked a small smile.  
“Satan is utter bullshit. Technically, yes, I am, quote unquote, the devil.”  
“Are you going to kill me?” said Gerard, which was probably a very stupid thing to say.  
Bryar waved a hand in disgust.  
“I don’t KILL people, I punish sinners. It’s my job, I get paid for it, I have to. I was born to torture. Tortured people usually are.”  
“What the fuck are you doing to Frank?”Gerard said threateningly.  
He had never been in a fight before, really, especially not with a very strong looking guy who claimed to be the official torturer of hell, but this WAS technically his ‘husband,’ and Gerard had always said that he would be a good husband to whoever the hell he married.  
“It’s you, I said. He’s half alive, his death ‘n shit is coming back to him. Go find Brian, a’ight? He controls the mostly-dead. I can’t do that, only the actually-dead. If you were actually dead…Gee…you’d have a hell of a bad death down here. Luckily you aren’t for a while.”  
“Wh-you know when I’m going to die?” said Gerard, momentarily forgetting the mostly-dead body in his arms.   
“I can’t tell you that. It drives most people mad,” said the devil/Bryar, and he grinned, flicking his lip ring with his tongue. “You’d go hell-of-a-lotta-mad, mate. Better go see Brian ‘bout going upstairs a’fore the parade catches ahold-a-ya.”  
“Right, then,” said Gerard, standing up with the limp Frank in his arms, and glancing around. He looked at the man expectantly. “Brian?” he asked. “Where is he?”  
“Right, well, you’d follow that way ‘til you reach a man ‘bout this high-“ he gestured. “-and ask him to go upstairs. Keep your boots tight, keep your gun close, and die with your mask on if you’ve got to.”  
The man in black chuckled at a joke that Gerard didn’t get and turned on his heel. He disappeared without so much as a pop.  
“Damn,” Gerard said to empty air, smirking at his own half-joke, and followed in the direction that Bryar had pointed towards.   
Frank was quite lighter than he had expected, more the weight of a teenager that didn’t eat much than a man about Gerard’s age, but there was still the fact that Gerard wrote comic books for a living, and despite the weight he had lost since his early high school days, he was still the weakest thing in hell. Never mind the fact that there was blood all over Gerard’s front.  
“Love,” said a voice, in Gerard’s ear.  
He ignored this.  
“She loves you, you know, dearie.”  
“She’s wondering where you’re off to.”  
“What about…the wedding?”  
“Oh…..that’s right.”  
There was a giggle and a breath on Gerard’s face.  
“Bloody hell,” said Gerard, and he squinted his eyes shut.  
“Lindsey Way…”  
“Stop it!” Gerard said aloud, and Frank awoke with a start.  
“’s matter, Gee?” Frank said, blinking up at Gerard adorably.   
“Nothing,” Gerard said, breathing hard, and twitching.  
“They’re talking to you, aren’t they,” said Frank, then suddenly yelled out. “SCREW OFF.”  
There was an eruption of giggles.  
“That’s what you two’ll be doin, eh?” said a voice full of sex right in Gerard’s mind, and Gerard yelled.  
“STOP.”  
There was only laughter ensuing, which made him even angrier.  
“You can put me down,” Frank said gingerly, and Gerard let him slide out of his arms onto the ground.  
“F-Frank, I can still hear them,” Gerard said, and he could, mere whispers in the sour, hellish wind.  
“La, la, la,” said Frank in Gerard’s ear. “LA LA LA.”  
It was kind of adorable, but kind of annoying, having Frank sing into his ear, but at least it blocked out the noise somewhat, until they reached the center of the forest.  
“Brian,” said Frank. “That’s him.”  
The man was sitting on a stool in the middle of the clearing like he gave no fucks, and as he turned, Gerard could see that there was no pain in his eyes, no fury, only power given for a reason, and he could tell that it was quite a good one.  
“Brian Schecter,” said the man, standing. “What can I do for you both?”  
“We’d like to go Upstairs,” said Frank, grinning slightly at him.  
The man nodded. Gerard could tell that Frank knew Brian quite well, and that he could easily get him to do something if he wished.   
“Right, then,” said Brian. “Why is it that you need to go Upstairs?”  
“He’s alive,” said Frank, jerking a thumb in Gerard’s direction. “And he lifted my curse, partially.”  
“Oh!” said Brian, raising an eyebrow at Gerard. “Married, huh?”  
“Yeah,” said Gerard, awkwardly. “Upstairs, then.”  
“That can be easily arranged,” the man said lazily, pulling a key out of thin air with nothing more than a pop. “This key will be your token to travel between our world and their world, so use it sparingly. You don’t want to break the fabric of the barrier, else we’ll spill out, and god knows what else.”  
“How exactly do you use it?” said Frank, taking the silvery key form Brian’s hand.  
“Flecte et conteret, et confringet alligaveritis conligandam, alligabunt in amore cum corde, cum anima sit animas vivunt et moriuntur, maxime mortuorum, plerumque diligunt, plerumque ligatum, plerumque irritum,” Brian said, smirking slightly. “I’ve got it written down as well, if you need it. It’ll open-“  
A large door appeared in front of Frank and Gerard with a lock that looked as if it would fit the key that was in Frank’s hand.  
“Oh,” said Brian. “Will you be performing the Ceremony?”  
“What’s the-“ Gerard began.  
“Nothing!” Frank said. “I’m okay, I promise.”  
“What the hell is the Ceremony?” Gerard said, sharply.   
“The Ceremony…will allow Mister Iero to go from mostly dead…to mostly alive. A wedding of the dead, of sorts.”  
“I don’t need it!” Frank said. “I’m okay!”  
He certainly didn’t look it, as he stepped forward with a cringe in his step and a moan in his voice, trying not to focus on the gun wound still in his chest. Instead he simply unlocked the doro, revealing a staircase, to, Gerard supposed, Upstairs.  
“All right,” said Frank, taking Gerard’s hand for practically no reason. “C’mon.”  
They stepped through the door.

***

“Where do we go?” said Frank, shifting.  
“Lindsey,” Gerard said promptly, and Frank tried to hide the fact that his face fell.  
“She lives near here…”  
They were in the forest where Gerard had accidentally married Frank and were attempting to get out of it.  
“Frank,” Gerard said slowly. “How did you die?”  
Frank took a deep breath.  
“There were these two guys who found out that I was gay. Named Sam and Jacob Boulevard. They were the kinda guys that could get away with anything, ya know? Getting girls drunk and punching kids in the face and making fun of gay kids, so as long as they got home on Sunday mornings for church.  
“They were twins, but Sam was worse. He wore this homophobic shirt to school that no one gave a second glance at because he was damn scary. But I did. I fuckin walked up to that kid and told him I was gay and he could kiss my fag ass. And he told me to meet him here in the woods or fuckin else.  
“So I had this boyfriend too, right? Seventeen year old gay kid, gotta have a boyfriend. His name was Will and I don’t remember much about him to be honest. But we were in love and he got me one of those promise rings, like a promise engagement. Just…yeah. So I go out to the woods with Ray. Ray wasn’t in school, then, but he was my second, you know? So Sam is there with Jacob and he throws the first punch at me and I hit him in the face and he falls to ground and pulls out a fucking gun. Me and Ray are backing away and Jacob is confused and then Sam fires it twice and BOOM. Then I’m pretty sure they buried me and whatnot, then I figured out in hell, from Brian that since I was promised to be married, if I got married I could rise. Some deaths aren’t fair, so there are loopholes like that.  
“And here we are.”  
“Damn it, Frank, I’m an asshole.”  
“What?”  
“I can’t unmarry you, you don’t deserve to redie and have torture or any of that.”  
“Marry Lyn-z,” Frank said.  
And there they were, in front of her place.  
Gerard nodded and looked at Frank like he was meant to do something.   
“Oh,” Frank said, and pulled off the ring with a tinge of sadness in his voice.  
Gerard turned back to take the ring and suddenly leaned in to kiss Frank on the mouth. He didn’t taste like death, that was the thing. He tasted like smoke and sunshine and coffee and then, suddenly, he tasted like nothing. Frank was gone. There were only leaves blowing in the wind.  
That’s the thing about the dead. Sometimes they’re there witn you. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes you think they’re watching over you when they’re really watching below. Sometimes rain is not the tears of the angels but the tears of the tortured. But the constant part is: they can never be all the way alive.  
Gerard knocked on the door of Lindsey Ballato’s apartment. It swung open and Lindsey’s eyes lit up.  
“I love you,” she said, smiling into Gerard’s mouth.  
But Gerard could only ever always wish for the taste of smoke, and sunshine.


End file.
